The 27-inch LG 27UD88-W is a sharp-looking 4K monitor that delivers a highly detailed picture, wonderful gaming performance, and plenty of features, including a USB-C port.

The LG 27UD88-W ($699.99) is a striking 27-inch gaming monitor with an Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel, and AMD's FreeSync anti-tearing technology. It has a wealth of features, including a speedy USB-C port that can be used to deliver data, audio, and 4K video over a single cable. The display showed top-notch performance in our gaming and input-lag tests and aced our gray-scale test. Its out-of-the-box color accuracy is slightly skewed, but that doesn't prevent it from earning our Editors' Choice for large-screen gaming monitors.

Design and Features LG products have long been known for their pleasing aesthetics, and the 27UD88-W is no different. The 27-inch UHD (3,840-by-2,160) panel is enclosed in a bezel-free white cabinet with silver trim. The cabinet sits atop a stand consisting of a curved metal bar and a telescoping arm that provides height, tilt, and pivot adjustability. The 10-bit panel covers 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut and has a peak brightness of 350 cd/m2, a 16:9 aspect ratio, a 60Hz refresh rate, and a 5-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response.

All of the I/O ports are located at the rear of the cabinet, facing outward. Here, you'll find two HDMI inputs, a DisplayPort input, an upstream USB-C port, two downstream USB 3.0 ports, and a USB port that is reserved for service use only. This model does not have speakers, but it does have a headphone jack.

As with the LG 34UC97-S that we reviewed last year, the 27UD88-W uses a four-way joystick to access and navigate the settings menus. It's also used to change input sources, activate a Game mode, and power the monitor on and off. In addition to Brightness, Contrast, Color Temperature, Black Equalizer, and Sharpness settings, you get 14 picture presets. These include Reader, sRGB, Color Weakness (for users who cannot distinguish between reds and greens), DICOM (optimized for viewing X-ray images), REC709 (HDTV broadcast standard), SMPTE-C (NTSC broadcast standard), and EBU (PAL broadcast standard). There are three Gaming presets (two FPS and one RTS), two Custom presets, and two Calibration presets. The 27UD88-W can also be calibrated using LG's True Color Pro calibration software and a third-party colorimeter. Color settings include individual Red, Green, and Blue intensity-level adjustments and Six-Color Hue and Saturation adjustments. Missing are the crosshair-aiming reticles that you get with the Acer Predator XB271HK, another top pick.

LG covers the 27UD88-W with a somewhat stingy one-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Most monitors in this price range are covered for three years. Included in the box are two USB cables (USB-C-to-USB-C and USB-C-to-USB Type A), HDMI and DisplayPort cables, a cable clip, and a resource CD containing an Owner's Manual and drivers.

Performance The 27UD88-W nailed our gaming tests. It delivered fluid action on our Crysis 3 (PC) and Grand Theft Auto V (Sony PlayStation 4) tests, with no apparent ghosting or tearing artifacts. Enabling FreeSync for the Crysis 3 test made the game appear noticeably smoother. Input lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command) came in at a speedy 9.8 milliseconds, as measured with a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester. That's just shy of our fastest monitors, the BenQ XL2430T and the SW2700PT, both of which measured 9.5 milliseconds.

The IPS panel had no trouble displaying every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test. Shadow and highlight details were sharp in my 4K test images, and the picture remained bright, with rich color tone when viewed from an extreme angle. Colors appeared vibrant in my test images and while displaying scenes from the movie Deep Impact on Netflix, but out-of-the-box color accuracy was less than ideal. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and blue colors (represented by the colored dots) are closely aligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes), but green is slightly off kilter. Fortunately, the skewed greens don't result in tinting or oversaturated colors, and I was able to bring them into alignment using the Six-Color adjustments.

The 27UD88-W consumed 40 watts of power in testing while set to the FPS1 preset and 27 watts while set to the sRGB preset (it does not offer an ECO mode). That's more energy efficient than the Acer XB271HK, which used 52 watts in Standard mode and 40 watts in ECO mode, and the ViewSonic VP2780-4K (41 watts and 31 watts, respectively).

Conclusion If you're a gamer seeking a stylish monitor that's equipped with the latest technologies, you'll appreciate the LG 27UD88-W. It delivers a sharp UHD picture, excellent gaming performance, and raft of features, including AMD's FreeSync anti-tearing technology. The panel's out-of-the-box color accuracy is slightly off, but there are plenty of picture settings, including advanced color settings that can be used with a third-party calibration solution, which can resolve any accuracy issues. You don't get the crosshair-aiming reticles and the speakers that you get with the Acer XB271HK, but the 27UD88-W offers a wider selection of video inputs, including a USB-C port, and it's around $200 less expensive. As such, it's our Editors' Choice for large-screen gaming monitors.

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About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of t... See Full Bio

LG 27UD88-W

LG 27UD88-W

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